The principles and teachings of personal and ecclesiastical separation are positive in nature. Unfortunately, many evangelical Christians have been taught that biblical separation is not biblical at all. Many passages of Scripture have been twisted to justify cooperation with so called and genuine Christians, regardless of their doctrinal positions. It's always a sad day when God's people twist God's Word to justify their own disobedience towards the God who bought them through the blood of His own Son. We believe that the Bible is verbally inspired and inerrant in its entirety, infallible, and authoritative. God's Word must be our absolute authority for all aspects of Christian living and ministry. As we'll read in a moment, God's Word gives us clear instructions regarding separation from apostates and false teachers. Commitment to Christ and to the Word of God cannot be sacrificed or compromised. Any attempts to justify such sacrifice and compromise falls into the same category of Saul's sin in 1 Samuel 15:
1 Sam. 15:9, "But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly."
Saul did not follow the Lord's commandments. Saul compromised! Yet Saul convinces himself that he's been obedient and when called on the carpet by the prophet Samuel, Saul tries to justify his actions. Read all of 1 Sam. 15 to understand these truths, but notice especially vs. 19-23 "19, Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD? 20, And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21, But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal. 22, And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23, For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king."
Any true brothers in Christ that foolishly convince themselves that their disobedience in not practicing biblical separation is still honorable to the Lord have deceived themselves and those that follow them. Rebellion and stubbornness is at the heart of those who will not come out from amoung those who disobey God in practice and teaching. This position is in keeping with the spirit and the statements of Scripture. Christians are commanded to separate themselves from immoral believers (1 Cor 5:10,11), from those who walk in disregard to the teachings of the apostles (2 Thes 3:6), from those who cause divisions by their doctrinal deviation (Rom 16:17-18), from those who practice or tolerate carnal behavior, and from those who espouse an inclusive policy that seeks to unite belief with unbelief, light with darkness, and the things of God with the things of Satan (2 Cor 6:14-15). Departure from professing Christians who would require a limited obedience to the Word of God or a traitorous disloyalty to Christ as the price of their fellowship is a necessary and positive action. The Word of God states that true believers are to take the following position in regard to disobedient Christians and apostates: to try them (1 Jn 4:1), to mark them (Rom 16:17), to rebuke them (Tit 1:13), to have no fellowship with them (Eph 5:11), to withdraw from them (2 Thes 3:6), to receive them not (2 Jn 10-11), to have no company with them (2 Thes 3:14), to reject them (Tit 3:10), and to be separate from them (2 Cor 6:14-18). We view apostasy and infidelity as tragic departures from the original position the Bible established for all Christians. The total rejection of the Word of God or only a partial obedience to it shows that a person or a group has left "the mainstream" of Christianity and has forfeited the right to fellowship with those who still hold to their New Testament stand of total submission to Christ and to the Word of God.